Even in Death
by AuroraLamia
Summary: I constantly could hear the two voices on the same thought waves. That was impossible though, unless they were a mind reader like me, but then, why can't I figure out who the voice belong to? Why can I only hear them when I'm in the middle of my sleep?
1. Chapter One

Even in Death

Chapter One

Explosions were been set off, and people were running, screaming below us, and as I sat in the Raptor that was to take off from Caprica, I realised with a smile that everything was going to be ok for me. I had been lucky; I was the first of the lottery tickets pulled to choose the final three to go into the Raptor. Though luck maybe has played a part in this, I actually believe that it was fate that led me to be saved from certain death. Luck just wasn't enough in my opinion, not enough to be the reason why I, of all those people, survived.

My shields were up around my mind, I didn't want anyone to see my emotions, and I didn't want to see into anyone.

I had been in the middle of lunch when the first bomb had hit Caprica City, and I had heard screaming, there was so much pain in the surrounding word that I didn't have enough time to put my shields up, I had mentally collapsed, clutching my head from the strong pains as the bombs went off.

But now, with so few people surrounding me, I was able to relax enough that it didn't hurt me to try and force a metaphoric open door - closed.

Gaius Baltar was in front of me, although he didn't seem to see anyone around him, least of all me. His visual-vision was in his brain, probably processing what was going on like the few adults in here were.

Some of the children were lucky, they were too young to understand, their innocence would remain untainted, though a few had their entire mind destroyed, it happened at the wrong moment in their life. They're brains aren't mature enough to deal the way adults were able to, nor are they young enough to just not understand what's going on, like the other kids were.

I pitied them.

In my head I remained - as others were doing - I was scared that the moment I actually realised what was going on; I'd break. But being in my head - where from a young age I had built a sanctuary of a sort – I was safe, I was away from what was happening and no one could hurt me.

I had lost everything, my house, my money, and my family though the last on that list was near nothing to me. I hadn't seen them in eight years. In fact the last time I had in reality seen them - not just talked to my mum or dad on the phone - actually physically seen them, had been eight years ago when I left. Leaving my dad shouting at me to get back in the house and mum in the kitchen pouring her-self another glass of ambrosia.

I never regretted leaving that house, but I did regret never telling them that I still loved them. As cliché as it was, it's the small things that make you realise how quickly things can disappear around you.

In my mind I was standing under the shade of a tree, light streaming through the green leaves and branches, onto the grass-filled ground. It was quiet. There was no pain, no lies, just this. At some point in my mind, where I had built the outside world of Caprica - probably now completely destroyed – I was awoken by a small tug on my dress. I turned to the disturbance to see a small child going out the door with wide, brown eyes.

"We're here." Someone told me, the voice was feminine, "and you've been out cold since we left." I wasn't surprised, when I slept my body shut down and I was able to process things clearly and efficiently.

"Where's here?" A simple question that may, or may not need a simple answer, though by the look on the person's face I assumed that they didn't know any more then I did.

"We landed on colonial 1 just moments ago, at least, they're calling themselves colonial 1." I exhaled out a deep breath before standing up. My shields around my mind were still up and intact, and as I smoothed my summer dress back into place I wondered what would happen next. "I'm Amelia by the way." She said climbing out of the raptor.

"Eve, my name's Eve." Someone helped me out and when I was on the flat ground of Colonial 1, I felt great, I felt sad, but I was very aware of the fact that I was alive. I followed the rest of us civilians to the main part of the ship to find that a lot of the seats were taken. I wanted to go back to sleep but something had me on nerves; there was something that wasn't been said by the people that were here and I was _very_ curious as to know what.

Sitting in a spare seat, I curled up to myself and brought my shields down. I had to shift through a fair amount of voices, there was a lot of '_but what about my parents? My Family?' _and '_Cylons destroyed our home…'_ to shift through but it didn't take to long too work out something through all their thoughts, once I had eliminated the people that were on the raptor.

A woman had been elected the president not too long before I had arrived, all I needed to do was find her consciousness and I could see what she had install for us, the civilians at the moment.

Ever since I was little, I've been able to shift through people's thoughts as I please, animals though, run on a different frequency and I can't get into their mind. One of many reasons my parents and I had fought so much was because I always knew what they were thinking. I hadn't learnt to build up my walls until later.

_Found you_. My mind had found President… Roslin was the name I pulled out of her thoughts. She was scared, but not a major amount of that fear was for humanity. She thought, no she knew, she was going to die of something… of cancer.

The president had terminal breast cancer? That was interesting.

I searched around a few other people but not much more digging was needed, nothing interesting was being said and soon enough I found myself replacing my walls back up into place, and resting my head against the window that looked out, into space.

I fell asleep again, my dream back in my sanctuary as I played with a small lap dog, only as I did play with the dog, I realised in the middle of my dream that I hadn't disconnected my link with someone and they were filtering into my head.

"So I'm, only in your head?"

"Exactly."

I opened my eyes and looked around, the connection snapping at my sudden movement. What had that been? Those were two thoughts on the same wavelength, and it wasn't a memory, memories weren't so vivid in the differences of voices. I tried to think of what could have caused this, I had never had a case like this, but maybe there were two mind readers speaking to each other? The sentence they spoke between them _did_ make sense then.

"No." I jumped and turned to see Gaius Baltar, he was hesitant in his seat, but when I went to open my thoughts to him, all I got was a wall. Strange. Few people had walls in their minds, most did it to protect themselves from the truth, I wonder what Gaius had to hide, possibly nothing more then cheating on someone, but another possibility was that he had done or seen something and had remembered it just then causing the flash that resulted in him crying out that one word. No.

I gave another quick scan of the room, but when I did, I realised that the connection I had could have come from anywhere.

The connections I have to thoughts were hard to break when I was tired. The connections themselves were easy to put up once you know how to, its just simply a way of looking into someone's mind clearly, and sometimes I put them up without noticing it because it was a process of thought I did so much I barely realised when I have done it.

But taking them down was hard for a number of reasons. One, you have to actually get out of the mind and to be out of the mind when you've got your eyes closed and you're ready to sleep, is hard. Two, normally I have to actually check that I'm out, a lot of the time I've still got a single connection that might be connected to their current thoughts, sometimes, but rarely, I could be connected to their memories. And the last reason why it's hard to disconnect is because my sub-conscious mind, the part that actually makes the main connection happen, doesn't _want_ to disconnect. Some part of me needs to be in someone else's mind, not just wants, but needs.

That's why I had lived by myself; it was also why I never told anyone about what was inside of me. I was scared that if the government found out they would want to use me to find terrorists, I couldn't do that, I couldn't be the reason the end someone's life no matter how terrible the person was.

A woman walked past me, she was holding a child, but she was too busy looking after and fussing over the child to realise that the child wasn't crying because it was hungry or that it was lonely or scared the child was tired. But I wouldn't tell her that, I wouldn't tell her because I couldn't. So I watched her walk into the bathroom to see if the baby needed changing while I tuck myself close together in the seat and fell back into my sanctuary, this time making sure I had cut all ties and connection that could be with anyone else.

-

"Hey," someone said nudging me. I opened my eyes and looked to see the woman who had talked to me earlier, Amelia. "They're offering some of us to go on Galactica, only like five of us and most opted to stay." I sat up and looked around, Galactica would have more people, but also more places that were secluded, so I nodded and followed Amelia to the Raptor that we had arrived in earlier.

"So we found Galactica?"

"You've been asleep for a while haven't you?" She asked, already knowing the answer as she continued, "there was an incident." I blinked, questioning for her to continue, "The Cylons came, and… ah, we had to get away quickly, but umm… some of the ships don't have an FTL drive so we… we left them and they were destroyed." Her eyes were blinking like mad to hold back the tears; "I'm not responsible for it but… why, why did so many have to die?" She grabbed me suddenly and was crying on my shoulder. I gasped as a thousand thoughts at once crashed my walls down.

Because of the physical contact, she had placed a connection straight into me, and I was seeing everything from both her and my own eyes. Thoughts were connecting in my head and I was having problems in what were my thoughts and what were hers.

But one stuck out, loud and clear, _'My husband was on there_.' So I hugged her back, knowing that she was crying for all their souls, but for all those people she was only crying for the man she loved.

The Raptor took off with a child and four adults, myself, Amelia, the pilot of the raptor, and Gaius Baltar. Baltar didn't speak, and my mind was in overdrive as I tried to continuously filter out her memories and thoughts so that I wouldn't go insane. I didn't know the breaking point of my mind and I don't wish to find out.

Eventually, after a gruelling ten minutes, we landed again. Amelia let go of me and wiped her eyes, following Boomer, at least that's what the person on the other transmission had said, and Gaius out. I was the last to exit, and when I did, I saw many people who were checking over the Raptor.

I looked around for Amelia but she had already left. "Where do I go?" I asked someone, who in return, just shrugged at me. With a heavyhearted sigh, I decided to just wonder around Galactica and see if I could find someone who did know what I needed to do. Where I was suppose to go.

My steps were quiet. And as I walked, I listened. People were thinking the same things over and over again in their minds, and it was worrying.

I hope that after a while, we as the race of humanity will be ok. But I don't think we will be; I think we're slowly going to lose everything that we've held close to us. We've already lost a lot of people we loved, our homes and possessions that had meant the worlds to us. But now with things like this, there are going to a lot of cut downs, no more luxury, nothing.

**Authors Note:** Heh, yeah I haven't used one of these – that is to say Authors Notes – in a while. I'm having problems with uploading the next chapter in Eloquent Elysian Silhouettes, and while I was frustrated I wrote this, also because I was watching the miniseries online since I STILL don't own it **–**pout-anyway, I just wanted to say that Eve is a character I'm slowly creating, unlike Star (or Earth Star, what ever you want to call her) she is still heavily been created. One thing I know for sure is how I want her to turn out. And yes, she can read minds, and enter minds, but she's having problems with Gaius' mind.

Anyway, the next chapter will take place about a week later then this chapter, so 33 the episode though I would LOVE to write about, I don't know. It's one of those things where if I owned it I would be like "hell yeah" but I don't. My parents aren't big on BSG (not enough action they say well pfft to them) so yeah, we'll see. I kind of used most of my downloads on the miniseries… it was so worth it.


	2. Chapter Two

**Even in Death**

Chapter Two

I shared quarters with a young kid – he was probably only eleven, twelve at most – and also few other women, they (meaning the crew) only let me stay here on the Galactica if I could help in any way possible, I told them I would take any odd job and that I had studied some science and I knew how a lot of the navigation worked, and then the first attack of the Cylons happened and it became obvious that I would be needed.

Since then I've been taking over shifts of officers who look like they're about to collapse, but only one's that I actually know how to do their job or that they can teach me quickly what else I need to do.

I'll give them sixty-six minutes of sleep before receiving that myself, though that _had_ been the plan; it's changed a lot. I was in the CIC, but I was constantly keeping my mind locked down to keep their thoughts away from me, which gave me extra work to do. I longed for my bed, longed for it more then I longed to shower.

And I _stunk_. Not that anyone really cared anymore. People were that tired that smells were on the bottom of the list in what to care about. Survival was of course on the top. Sleep second, followed closely by food, water and toilet. Depending on how you felt at that moment in time, alcohol was sometimes added in the betweens of the list.

"Hey, Eve right?" I was shaken awake, I looked at the clock, after a few seconds I realised I'd accidentally had five extra minutes of sleep. Frak. That was bad, I needed to help people. "Can you take over?" I nodded sleepily to the person as I stumbled back to the CIC; it was those few moments before an attack. And sure enough, when I arrived, so did the Cylons.

Adrenaline shot through everyone the second they appeared and in those moments where the Cylons were attacking, we worked hard, hard as we could. I spoke into the intercom relaying what Admiral Adama was saying to me, to the crew. "Hit on starboard bow." I blinked furiously at the screen, not understanding what it was telling me as I tried to re-read it again.

"They've started launching radars!" Someone shouted behind me and I blinked, realising that they were. I listened to the radio, making sure everything was fine, I couldn't tell with all the noise if someone had been shot down yet, though I hoped that they hadn't, we can't bear to loose a single one. We would sleep when we're dead, and we're not dead yet so we don't need to sleep.

"Colonial 1 has jumped."

"Bring in the fighters."

"Apollo, this is Galactica, come on home." I said into the microphone as I watched the screen. It was almost over; I would be able to sleep soon enough. I had probably had a lot more sleep then some of the other people, but it didn't matter. I was tired, so _very_ tired. The pulling at my body started and I realised that the Faster Then Light jump had started.

I receive a bad reaction to every FTL jump I've ever been through – and I've been through a lot of them lately – my body always shut down for a second and it took me a few seconds when I was wide awake to build up my mental wall again. It took me a lot longer when I was tired. By the time I had re-built my wall up once more, they had started the clock again.

Thirty-two minutes and forty-five seconds, well in reality there was eighteen minutes of sleep I could grab there, and I would take every chance I get, to get more sleep. I was no longer needed, so I walked back to my bed and closed my eyes, keeping the wall up and shut. It took a minute to check I wasn't tied to anyone, but it was far better then having my dreams been invaded by someone, not to mention it tired me more if I allowed that to happen.

I slept again, a few minutes more then I had intended to. I walked slowly back to CIC and set up post again. I ran over the basics before looking at the time, two minutes. The fighters were ready as I placed my headphone on and spoke into the microphone to warn them. "Forty-five seconds until expected fight."

I listened to one of the other people in the CIC mention that there were only three ships remaining to jump, we were slower and one of these times the Cylons were going to beat us by just a second. Because one second was all it took.

Thirty seconds remaining. I took a deep breath and smiled wearily at the computer screen and anyone who may, by any chance, be looking at me. I bit my tongue to get an early flow of adrenaline and then I stretched my muscles. Five seconds now. I flexed my fingers, nervous as the fighters, who had already left Galactica, were behind the line, waiting for the arrival of our nemeses. And then it happened, and they arrived and a part of me felt like begging to die. But I tried to remain strong as I followed what the Admiral and the XO were saying to me, and I retold the message back to Apollo.

I was so tired now that my eyes were crossing over and trying to fall asleep. I pinched myself as hard as I could to see the screen again, but before I could, I heard someone tell me to call the fighters in. I murmured it to them, and there was "check" from Apollo as they all flew back in.

The Cylons launched missiles once more and I felt my stomach drop and my eyes go black for a minute as all the thoughts and begging of everyone in my area, slammed into me at once as we went through another FLT launch.

When my thoughts collected again I heard angry voices, turning around I saw Dee, tired as hell, looking as though something awful has happened. "-A Cylon may have destroyed them before they jumped or-"

"-Or fifty other things…" I zoned out after that. We had lost a ship. This wasn't good; in fact it was fraking horrible. I wondered which ship we had lost as I went over everything, taking my headphones off to catch up on more sleep. I felt like sliding under the table and sleeping there, but I knew that I would get into someone's way.

I blinked as I staggered back to my bunk. Only one thought was running through my head before I closed my eyes, _we lost a ship we lost people_.

When I opened my eyes again, I realised it had been forty-five minutes since I had fallen asleep. I woke up, alarmed, scared that I had left someone else to do my post when it was still my time slot. I nearly ran back to the CIC to see a lot of people working. They were working slowly, but slightly happier.

I glanced at the countdown, "Plus fifty minutes?" I whispered.

"After we lost the Olympic Carrier, the Cylons haven't arrived back in the usual thirty-three minutes." Someone muttered, Dualla, or Dee as everyone called her.

"Do you think they were tracking it?" She shrugged, "Well it doesn't matter, I'm just glad that they haven't come back."

"Yet." She ended and I completely agreed with her. I was glad that they hadn't come back _yet_.

-

I was woken up suddenly, and I realised instantly why. Something had happened; the atmosphere had changed from 'at ease' to 'tense'. I went back to the CIC, and the clock was at fourteen minutes, and it was counting down. "Were we attacked again?" I asked as I took the post off of someone else, who looked thankfully at me.

"No, the Olympic Carrier returned." They said, handing me the headset, "Admiral thinks that it's a bad omen." I nodded, understanding. I assumed that Admiral Adama thought that since when we were safe, the Olympic Carrier had been "shot-down" at least that's what we had thought, but now since it had returned, it is only logic that says that maybe, just _maybe_, the ship has been tagged and followed by Cylons.

Orders were spoken to me and I relayed them to Apollo, "Apollo, Galactica, jam all communications with Olympic Carrier."

"Copy that." We watched in silence for a time span of four minutes before Dee received a message from Boomer.

"Admiral, message from Boomer, Olympic Carrier is refusing all orders and continuing to the Galactica." I held my breath, awaiting his order. There was a paused moment before he asked to be directly communicating to them. I handed it over and watched as he asked to destroy the Olympic Carrier.

"What?" I asked loudly, though no one really noticed. Though after that word spilled out, I immediately shut my mouth, it was his decision not mine. And I already knew that everyone was thinking the same thing, I should know. But as a team we all watched in pain as Cylons arrived. I turned back to my screen; my eyes begin to ache of the beginning of tears. Over thirteen hundred people were on that ship and Adama wanted to blow it up.

"Radiation-" someone shouted but I blinked my tears back so that I could see my screen.

"Where's it coming from?" I had to blink hard to understand what I was reading.

"The ah… Olympic Carrier sir." I murmured in surprise. Adama met my eyes when I turned face him and he nodded at me. My bottom lip quivered, as I knew what his only option was now. In that instant, I had to know if there was anyone on there, maybe I could find closure if I knew that there wasn't

I took a deep breath as I heard the Admiral give the orders to Apollo. And just a few moments after, I projected all of my energy into focusing on the large target that was the Olympic Carrier. I hit a wave of emotions and thoughts, and I couldn't pull anything out of the mess, I quickly pulled back and went to shout to them to say stop, that there _were_ people on there.

But it was too late. By the time I had pulled back, which I had done too fast causing me to spin for a second, Apollo had already pulled the trigger, Starbuck following by a few seconds. In pain, we watched as the Olympic Carrier, holding over thirteen hundred souls, was destroyed.

-

Twenty-four hours and no Cylons, twenty-four hours since we blew up the ship. I've slept a lot of it away. I feel so much better now, I'm sure a lot of people do. But I'd give so much back, even my own life, to have those thirteen hundred people alive again. I pretended earlier, before I went to sleep, that maybe I had accidentally hit the wrong ship with my mind.

But even I don't fully believe that.

I sighed again as I rolled over and tried to relax. I didn't smell anymore, my head didn't hurt and I wasn't so desperate for sleep.

But I was in pain, not physically, but emotionally. If I had tried earlier, I could have saved them, all thirteen hundred of them. Then maybe I wouldn't have to be here, in my bunk, crying over the souls of people I never met.

"Hey, ah, Eve right? I'm going to catch some sleep, Dee's taken my post though." I nodded and rolled back over and tried to sleep, tried to pretend that everything was ok that no one had been hurt. But I couldn't believe that. I was guilty with anyone else who could have, in any way, stopped that from happening.

But I felt most at fault, I had known without a doubt that there were people there and even though the Cylons haven't attacked since that moment we destroyed the Olympic Carrier, it doesn't matter. There were too many people on there for it to be ok. I don't think even one person to have died would have been ok.


	3. Chapter Three

**Authors Note: **Forgot to mention this earlier. Eve is _not_ her first name, its like how everyone calls Anastasia Dualla Dee, except her last name _is_ Eve.

**Even in Death**

**Chapter Three**

I was to take over the later shifts for Dee. I wasn't needed nearly as much as I was before and because of this I had received a lot more sleep since the "thirty-three minutes" incident that had been three days ago. But now because I wasn't needed as much (if at all) I had barely anything to do, and a lot of my spare time was just spent going round and round in circles on the Galactica.

I practically knew the ship by now.

I had about fifteen minutes before Dee wanted me there and I had nothing to do. Though I didn't plan on going anywhere near the CIC until I was needed. I sighed and continued to do another round, maybe to see if I could be of any help to anyone else for a few minutes.

In the end I ended walking back to my bunk and deciding there was only one thing that would help me kill time. I sat on my bunk and when I closed my eyes I opened my mind. There were a fair few people walking around, but a lot were too busy working to actually think as much as others, so I was easily able to shift through the surrounding area until I accidentally attached myself onto something interesting.

"Where are the others?" She asked.

_Other what?_ I asked myself as I pushed a little more energy into my mind to actually fall into their thoughts and find out whose mind I was in. Sharon, it was Boomer.

Pushing all my thoughts I tried to find out what she was terrified of, I could feel her emotions running like crazy. When I pushed myself further into her mind, I slammed against a mental wall.

"Ow…" I murmured receiving a large headache. Slamming into mental walls like that can give me incredibly large headaches and migraines. I shook my head and blinked a few times as it began to dull down a bit. _Ok, let's not do that again for a while_. I sighed and decided to go to the CIC a little early now.

As I was walking I accidentally slammed into the back of someone. Flashes of pulling a trigger flooded through me and relighted the headache I had. I grabbed my head in pain as I stood up. "Sorry sir." I said.

"Don't worry about it." Apollo, no, Lee Adama said with a small smile. I smiled back and continued my way to my shift. I could hear him and his father, the Admiral, talking about what was running through, at least, Apollo's head as I got away as quickly as I could. Was there nobody on this ship with happy thoughts that I could find comfort in?

"Hey Eve." Dee said pulling down the headset to talk to me, "Nothing you really need to do, Colonial 1's just about to port and I think the President's coming down to give us a thank you."

"So you think I should stay?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, thought as much, I'll go and see if Gaeta has anything for me." I sighed and walked over a few stations across to Gaeta. "Hey G-man, got anything for me, Dee wants to keep her shift."

"Ah… yeah, if you take over this for bit while I go with Adama to get the President that would be great, there's nothing happening at the moment but anything could change." I nodded at him as I sat down and took over his station. Like he said, there was nothing to do, not to mention the computers didn't have any games.

After watching the few screen for what seemed like hours, Gaeta returned with the President close as foot. "Thank you, all of you, without your extraordinary dedication and your tireless effort and your sacrifice no one of us would be here today I'm proud to serve as your president. Thank you." I clapped at the end of the speech and a fair amount of the others followed suit, while others just nodded in approval.

"Carry on." Admiral Adama said, leaving us to our business. But before I actually returned back to the long process I had ahead, Dee called for Admiral.

"The Virgon express is manoeuvring along side they're standing by for end-rep." Nothing of interest to me so I sighed and went back to work. Though Gaeta saluted the Admiral before walking, meaning that he was called upon to do something.

-

"Virgon Express, Galactica, we have you in visual contact maintain current course and speed." I said speaking into the headset to the Virgon express.

"Roger that Galactica, maintain current course and speed." I assumed that the Virgon Express was here to pick up water for the people and crew upon their ship. The Galactica had enough water for several years for everyone, at least, if what I remember about school is correct.

Nothing of interest was happening at the moment and I was no longer needed to direct the Virgon Express in what to do, with all the extra energy I had that was been wasted, I decided to check around and see if there was any _nice_ thoughts to call upon. Slowly I let my mental wall and fall and as I searched around, I realised that most thoughts were pretty neutral at the moment.

But it was pretty funny how the XO, the Admiral, the President and the CAG were all thinking that this entire thing was pretty stupid and that the other person was thinking less of them. None of them liked the ceremonial thing they constantly went through when the President came on board, but they all thought it made the other person feel more comfortable.

I didn't say anything though, because I see tell that Apollo was catching onto this, being the CAG and all; he _did_ have to have some sort of intelligence.

I watched as the President's second, not the Vice, but her advisor… Billy I think his name was, walked over to Dee. They had a spark between them but he was to shy and she was too stubborn to do anything at this moment in time. Though Billy _was_ in his defence, trying to give off signals.

I turned back to the President and saw that she had just been told what was going on with the whole "ceremonial-President" thing that everyone hated doing. Her expression went blank before she looked at Adama and realised that he was trying to do the same thing for her in which she was trying to do for him.

I bit the inside of my mouth to stop from laughing a loud.

"De-compression alarm!" I jumped and looked at my screen. Sure enough the tanks of water were beginning to blow from pressure or of something. I swallowed.

"Damage report."

"Ruptures in tanks three, five, nine, seven." I said as I had turned, looking at the other screen in confusion. Not quite understanding at what was happening. There were commands been shouted and Gaeta and I tried to do as much as we could in those few moments as the Admiral and the XO began shouting at us in a fit of anger, which was not directed at us.

A quick glance to Dee showed me that she _too_ was working her ass off to help fix the problem to the best of her ability.

"All out water is going directly into space." The XO said behind me and I paused to look at him, gob smacked and incredibly confused.

-

Some time later, I had handed my shift back to the expert. Knowing that he would be needed more then I. But before I could actually leave, Gaeta asked me to report to the President and the board, to tell them what had happened.

I was standing here, looking at the board, which held Gaius Baltar, President Roslyn, the Admiral, the XO and a few others that I didn't know.

"How much water did we lose?" The president asked and I replied with what I had written down.

"Ten million GP's, sir roughly sixty percent of totally water reserves." I swallowed hard, as a few seconds of tension filled silence happened before the Admiral spoke.

"Emergency rasions." He said, "Shut down laundry, showers and anything non essential immediately." He had turned to speak to the XO, who replied and accepted this command. Though I accepted it as well, I did not want to go through another long strand of time smelling like old sweat with everyone else.

But it didn't matter much.

"How long will our water supplies last?" The president asked me and I took a deep breath before I spoke.

"Well, ah, aboard Galactica? Six days… but one third of the ships were depending on us for replenishment and if we don't find new supplies, they'll run out of water in two days."

"One third?" Billy said, "That's sixteen thousand people." I nodded.

"Get the names of those ships and tell them to go on emergency rations immediately." She told Billy and I chewed lightly on my tongue to stop from saying anything as the XO commented on riots due to restrictions.

"That'll be all Eve." He said.

"Just one more thing," The president said before I got off of the podium in which I was talking upon. "Do you have any theories in what might have caused the accident?" I swallowed, I had many theories, and I bet I could find out what actually did happen if I tried, and I plan on at least dabbing into that tonight, but I wasn't going to tell them that.

"Well, there are many theories at this point in time Madam President."

"Take a guess." She told me, as if knowing that I may have an idea. I swallowed and looked at everyone to see if I could get an idea in what they wanted to tell me, but I already knew from their expressions alone.

"I prefer my officers not to guess and have them wait for fact." Adama said, saving me from saying something that I didn't want to believe. The President made a noise of understanding before saying something that I remember briefly, someone else saying, though I don't know whom.

"Indulge me." I swallowed and my eyes fell on Doctor Baltar briefly, who too, as everyone else had, paused to look at me.

"Take a guess Ms Eve." I nodded at the Admiral's words of permission in saying what I thought I had escaped to say.

"Well, ah, from what I have seen and heard, I'd say that the tank was structurally weakened in the Cylon attacks and ah… that caused it to clasp and rupture." I licked my lips; this was what they wanted to hear but not what they had expected. This was good; I had done well in my little lie. "But… it's too early to say." I said ending the sentence there and waiting to see if I was dismissed now.

"Thank you." She said and I nodded at her.

The Admiral spoke again and I wondered briefly if I was to leave now or wait to see if I was to be called on again, but I decided that I _had_ been dismissed from the podium but not the meeting, so I returned to my seat and waited through till I was needed again.

It wasn't long before the conversation was directed toward Doctor Baltar who was, and still is, one of the most intelligent men left from the colony. He told us; by tons, how much food we would need, and by the large amount I assumed it was for a month's supply and so did Lee, so I felt relaxed, until the Doctor said "per week."

Moments later Tyrol spoke, telling what he had found, and I swallowed hard at the announcement of six detonators missing from the arms locker, and because only five exploded, one was still unaccounted for, which raised the tension in the room to an extreme point.

A rushing noise appeared in my ears and I barely heard the Admiral tell Tyrol to put guards around all the arms lockers. But it didn't matter much to me, I have had, and will have, nothing to do with the arms locker. There was more speaking about an investigation and who had probably had access to the arms locker, but like before, I was still in shock.

Most of us were dismissed, with a warning that this was strictly confidential before those that were not selected, got up and left.

I walked away a far enough distance to be safe, before I projected my thoughts inside someone's head to listen to what the Admiral had to say, I was to curious to not do this. "There is at least one Cylon aboard this ship." The admiral said, confirming my beliefs that the Cylons now looked like us, humans.

There was talk of how many people actually knew without a doubt that the Cylons look human, and the XO spoke up, "The five people in this room and three marines."

"Let's keep it this way." I swallowed, I wasn't supposed to know, but I would have found out anyway. Besides, this information may be able to help me find who had placed the detonators in the tanks and where the other one might be. I pulled out from the strain before I relaxed and connected myself again.

"Doctor Baltar, how you doing with the screenings?" The admiral asked, but the moment he did, I realised I was inside of the Doctor's head; I hadn't meant to attach myself to him.

"Screenings?" He asked and I felt a soft amount of worry before the confusion covered him.

"You're supposed to be screening the Galactica crew for potential Cylon agents." Panic rose up as the confusion melted away. Why was he panicking? Though his eyes I saw the people around him looking in desperation for him to say something that would bring some sort of good news to them, but from inside Gaius Baltar, I sensed that he couldn't do anything like that.

It was strange because for one second I was watching through his eyes, then the next, I felt a tug, and found myself in his sub conscious.

"Do you remember the first time you lied to a woman?" Not only was I _in_ his sub conscious but also I was actually standing here as if this was a real place. I slid behind something and watched as a blonde, beautiful woman talked to him. "Other then your mother that is." I could feel myself backed up against something. This was strange, I've never, ever had something like this happened.

And the woman's voice was _so_ familiar, though I couldn't place it where.

"Other then my mother?" He spoke. Everything here was as clear as it was on Galactica, which is wrong because this is impossible. "Sherry Bennet." He said, and my eyes flickered to him. He was dressed in a suit, and unlike before, he was composed and relaxed as he looked at the woman in the hot tub.

She tilted her head slightly to look at him, and I watched her, she had very careful movements, like a cat, a panther even, she looked as if she planned every movement.

"Fourth grade." Baltar continued. "On the play ground, behind the band room." I sensed where this was heading to, but listened regardless. "If you show me yours, I'll show you mine?"

She, the blonde beauty was grinning now, finding his story completely amusing. After watching her for a few moments, I realised she was bare in the hot tub, making me feel that this… imagination, was all a fantasy, a defence mechanism when he felt panicked. But I couldn't unlock myself from it; I was too entranced by what was going on.

"She did, I… did not." He finished. "You know, I think I slept with her, many years later of course." He said as she got out of the hot tub, and as she walked, I wondered how even a man with his intelligence could create such a vivid image, such perfection, with every step she walked it was confident, it was known, but it was definitely _not_ a memory.

She grabbed a red towel and said to him, her smile less obvious now, "of course." Before she continued to walk to him, "Was she a beautiful woman?" Jealousy, why would some wish jealousy into their fantasy? It made no sense; I was becoming deeply confused now.

"As a matter of fact she did." It was obvious he was pleased with the woman walking towards him, but I couldn't get a reading off of her.

Even imaginations have some sort of reading, not thoughts of course, but emotions that the person wants _them_ to feel. It was like she had a shield around her to stop me from seeing anything of her.

"Very beautiful." He said, as if not realising that she was not impressed by the statement, which of course he should be, it was written all over her face. "But every woman has her beauty." This made me smile; he was both complimenting them and everyone else. "The ah, feminie charms that are hers and hers alone." He was trying to seduce her now, coax her back to been happy with him. She smiled but before it continued I was pulled back, along with him, out of the fantasy.

"Doctor."

"Ah right… screenings." I breathed out a sigh from my own body as I sat down, feeling this world once again, while feeling what Gaius felt from being in his body, to most people it would confuse the senses. It still did to me; being in his imagination had completely ripped away _these_ senses in reality and had only been there, but now. I frowned I was confused now, but I pushed them down as I continued to listen.

I felt Gaius Baltar saying something about not been able to screen then. And though he fully believed that what he was saying was true, as did other people around him, something threw me off, it wasn't quite right, what he was saying that is. He was waffling and babbling his way through before the Admiral stopped him, and I relaxed, his thoughts were confusing me, they were rushing so much out at once, but at the same time so little, his most guarded were _heavily_ protected that I would never be able to get through them, even by a miracle.

"It is obvious that you'll need help, staff, resources." The admiral was saying and I felt Gaius relax as if he had gotten away with something.

"That is exactly what I'm saying… exactly." But as he began to talk, another voice entered through. "Although more staff-" He had began to say before the familiar feminie voice of the blonde woman spoke.

"More staff, snooping around, watching your every move." I didn't dare to focus more energy in or out of this. I was guarding myself now, inside of him. This was impossible. I knew where her voice was familiar now; she had been the other person on the same wavelength when I had been on Colonial 1. "Maybe it can be a woman and you can find her secret beauty." I could see out from the corner of his eye that she was smiling, and from him I could physically _feel_ her touch.

"I'm going to assign Ms Eve to aid you, she's studied the same science you have, got top marks in her test."

Gaius was smiling now, and at the sound of my name I hesitated. Was this good or bad? "Aren't you lucky Gaius?" She whispered, playing with his hair softly as her warm breath seemed to act like a caress on his ear. She was, by what I could tell, an incredible sensual woman.

"But the need for secrecy..." He was guarding something, and the blonde had something to do with it.

"Cleary," Madam President's voice began, cutting him from saying anything further, "This falls into the absolutely necessary category." I swallowed in my body before I added a bit more energy. I couldn't tell if this woman was there, but Gaius was still tense. "Your screening technique may be critical for our very survival."

"Humanities very survival rests in your hands." She said looking down into him, and by the way she did, it was like she could almost see me inside of him, looking back out of him to her, though that _too_ was impossible. She had raised a finger, and it lingered above his lips before his dropped down and grazed the bottom lip. "Now only if you had an actual Cylon detector." I swallowed. He had been lying? But then… how?

I pulled out quickly, and afraid that if I stayed any longer, she may actually see me. Though she's not real right? She can't be, it's impossible, and_ I_ can't do anything like that can I? So she can't be a mind reader as well.

-

"I'm ah… really looking forward to working with you Doctor." I said to him as we walked to where his so-called Cylon device would be located.

"As am I." He said, though he seemed distracted. I wondered if it was his fantasy. I continued, trying to see if I could trick him into saying something that he wasn't supposed to.

"I studied genetics in university, it was something I majored in actually before I worked with some of the military-" He cut me off.

"Wonderful." I wondered if he was sexist suddenly. "Is that a card game?" Though that seemed like he had been actually distracted, I sensed from his emotions that that truly had distracted him.

We walked in and I sighed as we did.

"Mind if I sit in?" He asked, directing all of his attention to Starbuck. I sighed. And I wavered at him for him to sit. My "feminine charms" must be a little dusty.

I sat near him as he and Starbuck talked and I decided that due to being completely bored by games like this, I would see if I could dig around in his head and pick out why the blonde was so vivid. I had been in his mind for a while digging around before I pulled out and saw that there was only three in on the table. I grinned, I wouldn't mind seeing the last round.

Starbuck raised Gaius' five up to twenty I almost laughed as the other man folded, pulling out.

There was talking to each other, trying to psyche the other out speech as Gaius pretended that he was nervous and Starbuck called his bluff. There was soft flirting and then Gaius said "Well my hand isn't too strong, it wouldn't take me much to push me out of the game." And it looked like he was about to fold.

"Why thank you Doctor." Starbuck said, grabbing the winnings before Baltar stopped her.

"Without a little risk, life would be so dull wouldn't it?" Almost showing that he had a fantastic hand. "Call it."

Starbuck, not wanting to be defeated, showed her cards, saying "three on a run." That was good, not great, but it was good, it did win a lot of games.

"Full colours." He said, one of the best hands you could get, smashing out three on a run any day of the week. He grabbed all the things he had placed down before pulling out a cigar and passing it to Starbuck, with the words, "A parting gift?" He conned her into getting it by making it sound a lot better with the words "also the last in the universe."

"Thank you." She said softly as she pulled it to her mouth and had him lit it for her.

"My pleasure." He said, with a cocky voice, before she blew smoke into his face. He collected the rest of his winnings, proving my theory that he had only been in it for the wins, before he parted good bye, I walked out, but this time, I attached a small part of me to him, only a few strands of connection, enough to just see out of his eyes, while seeing out of my own as we walked.

But broke out of it when over the intercom came the Admiral's voice saying, "We have found water."


End file.
